Creative Connections with Mandy Jakich
By: Mandy Jakich
Language: en-nz
Categories: Arts, Visual, Leisure, Crafts
Conversations with visual artists and arts practitioners from Aotearoa New Zealand
Episodes
Scott Lawrie - Gallerist, Writer
Jan 07, 2026Scott Lawrie is a well known, much loved gallerist and writer in NZ and internationally.
I absolutely loved catching up with Scott again a few months ago while I was living in Turkey. I last spoke to Scott on the podcast more than 3 years ago in episode 62.
Scott Lawrie Gallery began life in 2017 in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and continues to thrive now in Edinburgh Scotland. As the gallery’s reputation grew the focus pivoted away from art as a business ontology, towards a more authentic, occasionally experimental, vessel for interesting ideas.
The...
Duration: 01:21:29ART BY THE SEA art gallery - with Linda and Mike Geers
Dec 16, 2025In this episode I speak with Mike and Linda Geers, the owners of Art By The Sea, an art gallery in Hurstmere Road Takapuna, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
This is a fabulous chat with 2 people who are very passionate about the visual arts in Aotearoa. Linda and Mike see themselves as conduits between artist and audience, as kaitiaki guardians of artists' work, making connections through art.
We talk about how they came to purchase Art By The Sea in 2001 when it was in Devonport, the early challenges they experienced and their move to n...
Duration: 01:25:49Katie Leigh Stewart - Multi media artist
Dec 02, 2025Katie Leigh Stewart is a mixed media artist living in Wellington, Aotearoa NZ.
Katie's paintings explore floral landscapes, portraiture, everyday life and nature. Her bright and bold palette as well as signature brush strokes gives viewers a moment to pause and find joy.
In this episode Katie talks about her early nursing career and how she finally came to focus on her artist career as a new Mum. We explore her paintings which are mostly inspired by her life, everyday experiences and her love of gardening and nature. Katie talks us through the wa...
Duration: 01:39:45Natalie Gelder - Multi disciplinary artist
Nov 23, 2025Natalie is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist born in Yorkshire, England, with a current focus on figurative oil paintings. Nat moved to New Zealand in 2016 in her early twenties.and is currently based in Auckland.
In this episode Natalie shares how creating likeness in a portrait has become a challenge too tempting not to take on as she's got older, becoming thirsty for something that felt more difficult and less forgiving. As a Mum of 2 boys, her sons have become treasured subjects that she never feels bored of capturing in her work.
Natalie explains...
Duration: 01:32:09Andrew Barns-Graham - Contemporary artist
Nov 13, 2025Andrew Barns-Graham is an established Auckland-based artist known for his hard-edged contemporary portraits with a pop realist style.
He renders smooth, gradient-infused figures set against minimal, atmospheric landscapes.
In this episode we talk about the pivotal moment that led to Andrew devoting himself to his art practice after a career in advertising. Andrew tells us about a traumatic near death experience and how that has influenced his art practice, his outlook and the way he lives his life.
We discuss the different phases of portraiture Andrew has explored throughout his practice, a...
Duration: 01:41:24Kyra Alkamil - Emerging young artist
Nov 03, 2025Kyra Alkamil is a 19 year old emerging artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, in her first year studying fine art at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland.
Kyra paints in oils and is interested in storytelling, the human figure, nostalgia, domestic scenes and surrealism.
In this episode we talk about the ways Kyra discovered and developed her love of art and her skills in visual art as a homeschooled teenager, how life drawing has contributed to her figurative practice, her shift from acrylics to oils and the development of her painting practice o...
Duration: 01:18:11Katrina Cosgrove - Contemporary Artist
Oct 27, 2025Katrina Cosgrove is a painter born in England who immigrated to NZ in 2005. She is now based in Bronte, a small settlement at the top of the South Island of Aotearoa NZ in the Tasman District, near Mapua.
Katrina's nature inspired artworks delve into the themes of self discovery, transformation, freedom, and the profound connection between nature and the human spirit.
With a background marked by resilience and a powerful personal journey, Katrina’s art reflects her transition from the corporate world, where she battled chronic pain caused by Fibromyalgia and stress, to a l...
Duration: 01:14:36Shelley Ryde - Painter, Printmaker, Writer
Oct 19, 2025Shelley Ryde is a well known, highly respected Aotearoa art educator and artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland NZ.
Shelley has led the visual art department and taught art at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, finishing this position in 2024 after 42 years of devotion, hard work, commitment and a lot of love.
Many young art students and NZ practising artists have been taught and inspired by Shelley, including a number of guests on this podcast who speak so highly of her and her influence.
This is the first part of a 2...
Duration: 01:56:02Kirsty Nixon - Contemporary artist
Oct 12, 2025Kirsty Nixon is a contemporary New Zealand artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her vibrant, light-filled paintings celebrate the untamed beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand — from the windswept beaches of the North Island to the soaring mountain ranges of the South.
Drawing inspiration from the land, sea, and native birdlife that surround her, Kirsty’s work invites a quiet moment of reflection — a breath of peace amidst the noise of modern life. With an instinctive eye for colour and composition, she transforms everyday encounters with nature into uplifting works of art that feel both familia...
Duration: 01:25:40Sarah Ritchie - Fibre artist and author
Oct 06, 2025Sarah Ritchie is a New Zealand fibre artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Sarah specialises in creating framed works in natural fibres such as New Zealand wool, bamboo and cotton, showcasing her passion for texture, colour, and non-toxic creativity - drawing inspiration from the breathtaking beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand.
In this episode Sarah unpacks her fibre art process for us: from her preferred fibres to use and the tools she uses to her technique , use of colour and the ideas behind her work.
Sarah is an absolute power house, o...
Duration: 01:37:35Ceara Lile - Textile artist
Sep 29, 2025Ceara Lile is a fibre-based mixed media artist who grew up in West Auckland. She creates abstract textile collages layered with meaning, memory, and emotion as well as eco inkless hand printed fabrics. She now lives in Keri Keri in the Far North of Aotearoa NZ with her partner Mario.
From an early age, Ceara has been captivated by textiles, drawn to their textures and versatility. Her work takes the form of abstract, collage-based fibre sketches, where these materials serve as both her medium and her tool. Caera creates layered backdrops, using these elements to...
Duration: 01:29:21Jane Shriffer - Abstract painter
Sep 21, 2025Jane Shriffer is an abstract painter living and working in Wānaka in the south island of Aotearoa NZ. Jane paints intuitively, layering colour and texture, making her marks with a palette knife.
In this episode we have a fantastic chat about Jane's experience studying painting at Dunedin School of Art as an enthusiastic 18 year old only to leave university with her degree and not return to painting for 10 years. She shares how she got back into painting through immersing herself in lthe local art scene, the things she did to grow confidence in herself a...
Duration: 01:41:18Katie Blundell - Multi media artist
Sep 16, 2025Katie Blundell is a contemporary New Zealand artist, living and working from her studio in Clevedon, south east of Auckland. Focusing on the human experience, her work is both personal and universal.
Katie approaches her practice through different media depending on what ideas she is wanting to express, primarily focusing on on printmaking, painting, drawing, photography and sculpture. In this episode we talk about:
her beautiful gallery/studio space in Clevedon where she teaches, creates, mentors and exhibits her work and how she manages the space and the variety of work she doesher experience s... Duration: 01:26:35Lynette Fisher - Contemporary painter
Sep 09, 2025Lynette Fisher is a contemporary painter living in Te Puna near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. Lynette's art practice also encompasses printmaking, drawing and assemblage.
Her work investigates themes of adoption, identity, obligation and ownership. While an underlying sense of nostalgia usually permeates her work, Lynette purposefully disrupts it to bring layered and disordered meaning to often commonplace and overlooked themes.
Lynette is such a fun person to talk to and I think you'll enjoy listening to her story and outlook on life as an artist. Lynette shares her early artistic career...
Duration: 01:46:36MUSE ART GALLERY - with Kaye McGarva
Sep 01, 2025Muse Gallery, founded by Kaye McGarva in 2017, is situated in Havelock North, in the Bay of Plenty, Aoteaora NZ.
In this episode I talk to Kaye McGarva, a professional artist herself and the owner/director of Muse Gallery.
This bis a conversation I'm sure many artists will be intrigued to hear. Kaye shares how and why she started Muse Gallery 9 years ago and the challenges of starting a gallery with no former experience in this area and how she grew the gallery from the ground up. We explore how Muse Gallery organises their y...
Duration: 01:18:02Caitlin Johnston - Multi media artist
Aug 26, 2025Caitlin Johnston is a multi media artist living near the Hibiscus Coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
As a Kiwi, much of Caitlin's work shows the deep connection that we have with the ocean and the land in Aotearoa. The way it makes us feel, and how we are connected to it. The sounds of the waves, the emotions we feel, the endless beauty of coastline and the nature of New Zealand inspires her work.
Caitlin uses upcycled surf boards and various other found materials as her canvas, then incorporates mixed media, a...
Duration: 00:55:55Fiona Kerr Gedson - Feather Artist
Aug 18, 2025Fiona Kerr Gedson is a fibre artist who has used feathers as her primary medium for more than 25 years. She works from her home near Ōpōtiki, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa NZ.
Fiona’s meticulously crafted, intricately designed feather pieces have a calming and meditative presence. Her work reflects and honours the things most important to her – her family, her spirituality, shared experiences, life stages and a sense of kotahitanga (unity).
Her most recent collection, Pilgrimage, is the embodiment of this. Inspired by walking the Camino de Santiago – completing 1500km over 8 1/2...
Duration: 01:34:11Lucy Eglington - Painter
Aug 06, 2025Lucy Eglington is a painter originally from the UK who immigrated to Aotearoa in 2003. She works from her home studio in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Working primarily in oils, Lucy’s paintings explore human states of mind: dreams, successes, losses, grief and love and the narratives we tell ourselves. She often uses animals to represent ideas and feelings and to add individual narratives to each work.
With a successful track record of sell-out shows and recognition in prestigious art awards, her works resonate with audiences around the world.
In this episode we have a go...
Duration: 01:40:24Alexandra Tylee - Painter
Jul 29, 2025Alexandra Tylee is a painter living in Poukawa in the Hawkes Bay. From her early twenties until her early forties Alexandra setup and ran 2 successful businesses, Fuel espresso in Wellington and Pipi Cafe in Havelock North. She has also written 3 cookbooks and an award winning children’s fiction book called If I Was A Banana.
Alexandra started painting around 5 years ago. Selling Pipi cafe in 2023 allowed her to devote herself more to her painting practice and since then she has had two sell out exhibitions at Muse Galley in Havelock North.
In...
Duration: 01:12:44Anna Stichbury - Contemporary Artist
Jul 22, 2025Anna Stichbury is a contemporary New Zealand artist from Wellington whose practice spans painting and installation, distinguished by her bold use of colour, layered textures, and dynamic mark-making.
It was a pleasure to meet and talk to Anna, an artist I have admired for a long time, and hear all about her fascinating art practice. We discuss how Anna studied design in Wellington after high school, what she gained from this course and a significant moment that lead to her first gallery representation in her early twenties, which marked the beginning of her established full t...
Duration: 01:37:56Sur Collective - A Latina Artist Collective
Jul 13, 2025Sur Collective is an artist collective founded in 2021 out of a need to create a sense of place and redefine the space Latina artists use as migrant women in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Sur-Collective are 5 wahine from Colombia and Chile who work with different art disciplines such as sculpture, drawing, painting, textiles, ceramics, photography and embroidery.
Today I'm speaking with one of the collective artists Cat Guevara, a ceramic artist who migrated to Aotearoa from Colombia 8 years ago.
We have a fascinating chat about how Sur Collective came about and why, how i...
Duration: 01:16:39CONNECTION - 4 guest artists from the group show
Jul 07, 2025This episode is different to our usual format. Mandy is in the Kumeu Arts gallery at the podcast group show CONNECTION with 4 previous podcast guest artists who have work in the show.
Contemporary Fine Artist Dita Angeles https://www.ditaangeles.com/
Abstract photographer Chris Melville http://www.chrismelville.co.nz/
Painter Yvonne Abrcrombie https://www.instagram.com/yvonneabercrombie
Contemporary painter Coral Noel Yang https://coralnoelyangart.com/
Each guest was asked what they've been up to artistically since we last spoke on the podcast, to talk about their work in t...
Duration: 00:51:13Mandy Jakich - Talking community with artist Julie Battisti
Jun 30, 2025Hello and welcome to season 9 of Creative Connections. I’m so excited to be back with weekly episodes and a fantastic varied line up of artists booked in from now until mid December 2025.
This episode is a bit different. I was interviewed by artist Julie Battisti for The Creative Kind Podcast a few months ago and I thought you might be interested in listening to our conversation.
We’re talking community. Which is very topical at the moment alongside the current Connection group show at Kumeu Arts which I curated, involving 60 artists who have...
Duration: 00:44:42Janette Cervin - Contemporary Painter
Jun 08, 2025Janette Cervin is a contemporary painter. She lives in Warkworth, north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with her partner and artistic collaborator Jake Kennedy.
Jan creates beautiful large-scale paintings that offer an invitation to an immersive antipodean paradise teeming with exquisitely detailed New Zealand flora and fauna.
A unique illusion of depth is created through the combination of traditional painting conventions and applications of thick layers of glossy resin, which is where Jake Kennedy comes in.
This is a very special chat with Janette and I loved welcoming Jake to the con...
Duration: 01:34:02Alice Alva: Multi-disciplinary artist
May 21, 2025Alice Alva is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Kirikiriroa – Hamilton, New Zealand. Her work is informed by an interest in patterns, ornamentation, architecture and craft-based processes.
In addition to her art and design work, Alice is also an art educator and a māmā to her daughter Daphne. She is an advocate for the visual arts in Aotearoa, New Zealand and is on the executive committee of ANZAAE – Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators.
This episode is our very first episode with our new podcast name CREATIVE CONNECTIONS. Same podcast different name a...
Duration: 01:35:33Michelle McIver - Contemporary Artist
Apr 27, 2025Michelle McIver's is a contemporary artist who grew up in rural Otago and is now living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her work explores the interplay of light, colour, and form through abstract compositions. Using simple geometric shapes, she layers and juxtaposes blocks and bands of colour to create depth and structure. Each painting is an exploration of how light interacts with form, evoking a sense of balance in its abstract simplicity.'
Michelle and I feel like kindred spirits. I loved sitting down with her and having a good chat in my little studio. We ex...
Duration: 01:52:03Resale Royalties Aotearoa, Toi Huarau
Apr 19, 2025The Resale Royalties Scheme brings New Zealand in line with global standards to ensure artists are fairly compensated when their work is resold.
It means NZ art resold here and overseas will return a payment to our artists or their successors.
Today I'm speaking with Chief Executive Sam Irvine. He explains everything artists, successors and art market professionals need to know about the Resale Royalty Scheme. I recommend you check out their website https://resaleroyalties.co.nz/ after listening to this episode which has all this information and more set out...
Duration: 00:31:27Isaac Weston - Copper Artist
Apr 11, 2025Isaac Weston is a full-time copper artist based in Matua, Tauranga, Aotearoa NZ.
Isaac’s creative process is a unique blend of artistry and alchemy, combining acids, salts, and sunlight to reveal the hidden beauty of copper. This approach allows him to bring out light, shadow, texture, and vibrant patinas, showcasing the organic elegance of the metal. From sculptures to wall art, Isaac creates high-quality gallery pieces that reflect his ongoing fascination with the ever-changing textures and colours of his materials.
I loved talking to Isaac in my studio at Muriwai. We explore hi...
Duration: 01:44:20Sefton Rani - Parehuia Artist in Residence
Mar 19, 2025Sefton Rani describes himself as a maker, who uses paint as his primary material. Based in Auckland, he is a visual DJ who mashes up industrial materials with Cook Island narratives, to create modern Pasifika art.
Sefton is the current Parehuia Artist in Residence at McCahon House, which is in Titirangi West of Auckland NZ. McCahon House Artists’ Residency, named Parehuia by local kaumatua Eru Thompson in 2008, is amongst the most prestigious artists’ residencies in New Zealand.
Three residencies a year, each of three months duration, are available to outstanding professional artists. Artists receiv...
Duration: 00:59:38Claudia Aalderink - Contemporary artist
Mar 05, 2025Claudia Aalderink is a self-taught artist based in Kihikihi, near Hamilton in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also the founder and director of The Mandarin Tree art gallery in Gordonton.
Her works are created by meticulously fragmenting discarded beehives in a non-symbolic approach. Within a reduced visual vocabulary of circles, squares, rectangles, and lines, she explores the subtlety of colour, scale, and composition
Originally from Holland, Claudia says her 2005 move to New Zealand has been ‘life changing’ for her family and her art.
We have a beautiful chat with all the windo...
Duration: 01:27:33Sara Langdon - Contemporary Artist
Feb 19, 2025Sara Langdon is a contemporary New Zealand landscape artist living in Beachlands, East of Auckland. Sara currently draws inspiration from the beauty of familiar and distinct volcanic landmarks around Auckland city and the Waitemata Harbour.The New Zealand landscape is Sara's source of inspiration and reason for painting.
Sara paints places she is connected to and loves, places she wants to explore and respond to so that people who feel this same connection are able to enjoy a tangible reminder of a place.
In this episode Sara shares her journey to eventually finding he...
Duration: 01:41:44James Watkins - Painter
Feb 06, 2025Born in Oxford in the UK in 1984, James Watkins moved to Auckland, New Zealand at a young age, kicking off a lifelong journey of travel and creative exploration.
James thinks of his intuitive painting practice as limitless and sees defining his practice as a certain style or describing himself as a certain type of artist as restrictive and unnecessary.
In this episode James shares how he never really felt creative as a young person but discovered photography in his late teens. From photographing beautiful things around him, James went on to explore writing, p...
Duration: 01:25:44Delainy Jamahl - Visual artist & creative technologist
Jan 26, 2025Working at the intersection of art and technology, Delainy Jamahl's art practice focuses on data as the central narrative. He creates immersive and interactive installations that explore and visualise, transforming complex information into engaging visual experiences.
It was lovely to meet Delainy and to speak with a creative technology artist - the first of his kind on the podcast! In this episode we explore the creative and technical routes he took and the great influence an artist mentor had on him that lead him to consider channelling his skills into an art practice.
...
Duration: 01:15:44Anna Gibbs - Conservation Artist
Jan 19, 2025Anna Gibbs is a contemporary painter living in Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch in the South Island of Aotearoa NZ.
If you search her name on Google you'll see she is described as an "internet personality" which probably comes from the amazing work she does on the Instagram social media platform and her loyal audience of more than 100,000 followers.
Anna is interested in conservation and fortunate to live on a rural lifestyle-block populated by many native birds and plants. Her oil paintings are inspired by her daily observations of the interaction between native flora a...
Duration: 01:38:39Alex Wilkinson - Ceramic Artist and entrepreneur
Dec 16, 2024Welcome to episode 155, the final episode of 2024. Ngā mihi nui Thank you so much for listening and for your support this year. I hope the podcast has cheered you up, motivated you, inspired you, affirmed what you do or educated you in some small way.
As you probably know, the CM podcast is largely self funded. However, I now have a way for you to show your support if you'd like to, by making a small donation of 3, 5, 8, or 10 dollars every month. There is a link in my podcast Instagram profile and in the s...
Duration: 01:36:59Roy Mason from Fingers Contemporary Jewellery Collective
Dec 08, 2024Established in 1974 by a group of young jewellery makers to promote their work, Fingers has become synonymous with innovation and originality and the development of an indigenous style of contemporary New Zealand jewellery.
Fingers has been at the forefront of treating and displaying the craft object as art, and has constantly challenged the notion of what is precious. As the oldest contemporary jewellery gallery in New Zealand, Fingers has become an institution recognised locally and internationally, providing a platform for many artist's careers.
In this episode I speak with jeweller Roy Mason wh...
Duration: 01:17:46Bailee Lobb - Sculpture, installation and performance artist
Dec 01, 2024Bailee Lobb is a queer, disabled artist born in Whanganui, Aotearoa, 1989 and now based in Wellington. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with textiles, colour, and movement to create sculpture, installation, and performance artworks that explore art as disability access and care.
In this enlightening episode Bailee talks about how she felt as a teenager, as a person who was dealing with undiagnosed autism and how her artwork now responds to and nurtures her disability. She shares how she started her studies in architecture at uni in Aotearoa, why she changed degrees and went on...
Duration: 01:38:03Julie Battisti - Painter
Nov 24, 2024Julie Battisti is a painter who grew up in Melbourne Australia and moved to Aotearoa New Zealand with her husband in 2017, settling first in Rawene in the North Island then going on to make Dunedin her home.
Julie's paintings currently have two significant themes; clouds and flowers. Both are studies of light and texture.
In this episode Julie shares how she sources and chooses the flowers she paints, how she creates her floral compositions and her floral painting process from underpainting and taking photographs to painting the final details and how she a...
Duration: 01:24:21Chris Melville - Photographer
Nov 17, 2024Chris Melville is a photographer, graphic designer and jazz musician living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
In his latest photographic collection, Chris uses household items and a slow shutter speed to create landscape compositions, suggesting dreamy lakes or mountains appearing from the mist. Chris currently works with linen, denim, smooth cotton and coarse hessian, creating visual layers and textures. The resulting images, while being made entirely of practical human-made objects, speak of the mystical natural New Zealand environment, referencing Colin McCahon paintings through their minimal aesthetic.
Chris shares lovely reflections on life an...
Duration: 01:11:17Ross Jones - Painter
Nov 10, 2024Ross Jones is a painter creating works that evoke a heady sense of nostalgia and elevated playfulness, living in Snells Beach on the east coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Each meticulously devised painting offers hints at various narratives as the artist invites the viewer to engage with his role as storyteller.
I loved meeting Ross and chatting to him. We talk about Ōtaki on the Kapiti Coast of Aotearoa where he grew up and the things he loves about where he now lives at Snells Beach. He shares how he fa...
Duration: 01:21:51Cathy Carter - Photographic + multi media conceptual artist
Nov 03, 2024Cathy Carter is a photographic and multimedia conceptual artist, living in Grey Lynn, Auckland.
Cathy's art is inspired by concerns about climate change and our evolving relationship with bodies of water as physical, cultural, and unique environmental ‘landscapes’ and investigates our complex psychological relationship to water through different perspectives and geographical locations.
Cathy and I have a lovely chat which I know you'll enjoy and I just loved our time together. We talk about an influential trip to Europe with her young family that influenced her and informed her early art practice, why s...
Duration: 01:18:54Jeff Thomson - Sculptor
Oct 28, 2024Jeff Thomson is a sculptor living in the little suburb of Helensville, in the north west of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is well known for his corrugated iron animals, birds, cars and people as well as NZ icons like the Taihape gumboot and the Holden in our national Museum Te Papa, and is often referred to as the corrugated iron man of Australasia.
Unconventional, humorous, challenging, iconic and ironic, the sculpture of Jeff Thomson has given a whole new perspective to corrugated iron in the New Zealand landscape and in art.
Jeff'swork i...
Duration: 01:41:03Emma Hercus - Figurative Painter
Oct 20, 2024Emma Hercus is a painter born in Hastings and now living in Plimmerton, just north of Wellington.
The everchanging ocean and its view from her home serve as constant reference points in Emma's narrative abstract figurative paintings.
I loved talking to Emma. We talk about her early influences and inspiration from family as she was growing up, the amazing basketry and weaving practice she developed when she first decided to get back into being creative after having kids - which after a number of years finally led to her painting practice. We discuss...
Duration: 01:03:42GUEST UPDATE: Kylie Rusk
Oct 15, 2024Today I'm catching up with painter, printmaker Kylie Rusk to see what she's been up to since I last spoke to her in March 2021.
Listen to Kylie's first chat on the podcast in episode 2:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-on-air-with-kylie-rusk
You can see her work at her upcoming group show ELEMENTS at Turua Gallery
October 18th - 30th 2024
https://turuagallery.co.nz/collections/kylie-rusk
Support the show
Creative Connections Website
See our website for more about us and artist blogposts with images + links of the...
Duration: 00:12:37Gilly Sheffield - Contemporary Artist
Oct 13, 2024Gilly Sheffield is a sculptor | weaver living in both Glendowie in Auckland and Wanaka in the South Island.
After a lifetime of making, it was only a few years ago that Gilly developed a more specific art practice using corrugated iron and started to see herself as an artist.
In this episode Gilly shares how she came upon this very iconic NZ material, corrugated iron, how she sources it (with help from her 'Iron Rescue Collective' friends) and the stories this medium tells for her.
She generously shares a personal traumatic ev...
Duration: 01:10:17Sue and Karen Gardiner from the Chartwell Trust
Oct 06, 2024Creative visual thinking is fundamental to us all as human beings as we strive to understand our sense of self and the world. Chartwell seeks to deepen understanding about the importance of art and creative thinking for our future and our wellbeing.
The Chartwell Trust was set up in the early 1970s by Robert Gardiner, then a Hamilton businessman and accountant, as a charitable trust to realise Chartwell's vision for wider access to and deeper understanding of creative visual thinking.
The Chartwell Collection was established in 1974 as a privately managed public collection, a...
Duration: 00:56:29Levi Hawken - Contemporary sculptor
Sep 29, 2024Levi Hawken is a brutalist | modernist sculptor living and working in west Auckland. His practice includes sculpture in concrete, glass, wood and bronze as well as painting.
As a skateboarder, Levi understands the undeniable attraction of the urban concrete landscape. His work responds to the forms and elements of this environment.
In this very authentic conversation Levi takes us through his extraordinary life from early graffiti days and his world of skating to his appearances on TV and in film and the Nek Minute meme that made him famous, although not necessarily for...
Duration: 02:04:45Di Tocker - Sculptural glass artist
Sep 22, 2024Di Tocker is a sculptural glass artist living and working from her purpose built studio in Cambridge, in the Waikato.
Di maintains a structured approach to her art practice and business. She provides work for 5 galleries throughout New Zealand, and undertakes commissions for private residences and commercial projects. Di loves to connect with people who enjoy her glass work and welcomes visitors to her studio by appointment.
In this episode we chat about how Di discovered her love of working with glass and the ideas and narratives her work conveys.
Di...
Duration: 01:43:02Ronja Schipper - Re:purpose Ronja
Sep 15, 2024Ronja Schipper has been lovingly making up-cycled art objects since 2015. She lives in the Waitakere Ranges in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Ronja uses waste materials for creating design pieces, aiming to highlight the relationship with our at-risk environment & its resources. All pieces are hand made in NZ from discarded bike innertube, cleaned, polished & enhanced with new findings.
Ronja was born in Munich, Germany and is a creative all-rounder with 20 years experience in the publishing, fashion and advertising industry in Europe and NZ with a particular passion for illustration. Since moving to New Zealand i...
Duration: 01:15:26Mandy Patmore - Mixed-media environmental artist
Sep 09, 2024Mandy Patmore is a multi-media environmental artist living in Karekare, on Auckland’s west coast.
Primarily a painter, Mandy's current work focuses largely on deforestation and habitat loss in New Zealand, and the plight of many endangered native species, whilst exploring themes of colonisation and human impact on our landscape.
I find the work Mandy does in the community, with the environment and her own art practice super inspiring and this is a fantastic episode I know you'll gain many things from. We talk about the Piha domain footbridge project she completed in 2009 whi...
Duration: 01:23:11Dita Angeles - Contemporary Fine Artist
Sep 02, 2024Born and raised in Auckland, Dita Angeles completed her BFA at Whitecliffe College in 2004 before spending the majority of her career in Asia and more recently Australia.
With a strong background in portraiture - social presentation, perception and persuasion are the dominant themes that run through Dita's work. Her paintings are inspired by existential philosophies and 20th century aesthetics, and depict social issues and personal moments that incorporate the spectacle of contemporary culture, paying close attention to behaviour, ego, identity and anonymity.
We have a fascinating honest chat about the difficulties of moving t...
Duration: 01:34:50Leigh Tawharu - Mixed media artist
Aug 26, 2024Leigh Tawharu, is a contemporary mixed media and printmaking artist living in Kaeo, Te Tai Tokerau in the far north of Aotearoa NZ.
Her work is created through various techniques and mediums which seek to explore surface texture, pattern and design on paper. She is influenced and inspired by her surrounding landscape of maunga (mountains), native bush, fashion, textiles and still life from within her immediate domestic environment.
This is the best conversation and I absolutely loved meeting Leigh. We initially connected when I inited her to exhibit a work alongside my own t...
Duration: 01:25:56Sam Leitch - Contemporary painter, print maker
Aug 22, 2024Sam Leitch is a contemporary painter and print maker living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Sam sees himself as a storyteller of everyday life and the unknown, capturing time and combining commonplace objects and surrealist expressions to invite the viewer in to the painting.
He has always been fascinated with what makes a piece of art. The connection between the viewer, the artist and the piece is a relationship which dominates his ever-evolving art practice.
Sam and I have a great chat, firstly off air about our dogs...
Duration: 01:03:02GUEST UPDATE: Frankie Meaden
Aug 19, 2024GUEST UPDATE: Textile artist Frankie Meaden was last interviewed on the podcast in July 2023 in episode 87.
Today we catch up with her to hear about what she has been up to since then - including a residency, her first solo show, a group show at Turua Gallery coming up and the creation of new works. She was also involved in and a finalist in the Changing Thread’s Contemporary Textile and Fibre art awards 2024 show (which she forgot to mention in our chat!)
Her group show at Turua Gallery with Agate Rubene and Sam Leitch: Co...
Agate Rubene - Artist, Illustrator
Aug 18, 2024Agate Rubene, aka Restless & Infectious, is an artist and illustrator with a background in fashion and graphic design. She is from Latvia and now lives in Wānaka in the South Island of NZ.
Agate’s work focuses on people and their actions, capturing emotions and feelings. She is inspired by the people around her, human interactions and patterns in nature. Agate loves using bright flat colours to create her own alternative realities, where feminine themes take centre stage.
It was such a pleasure meeting Agate and I found it super inspiring to...
Duration: 01:11:05Jennie De Groot - Contemporary Painter
Aug 11, 2024Jennie De Groot is a contemporary painter living near Hamilton in the Waikato.
Jennie's oil paintings occupy a space where reality, imagination and memory all hold equal tenancy. These psychological landscapes hold the tension between realism and abstraction, place and non-place. Her status as immigrant informs her work, exploring themes of identity and adaptation.
After studying archeology, a career in travel consultancy, moving to New Zealand from South Africa and then contracting a serious infection at the age of 39, amongst many other things, Jennie finally devoted herself to her art practice at th...
Duration: 01:23:32Alice Fennessy - Visual artist
Aug 04, 2024Alice Fennessy is an artist based in Palmerston North in the Manawatu. She uses drawing to convey themes such as intimacy, domestic life and interior worlds.
Her work is currently intertwined with motherhood as she raises her two young children, dreams and memories. Alice is endlessly fascinated by the juxtapositions or dualities thrown up by pregnancy and motherhood, how these experiences can be simultaneously beautiful and ugly, tender and excruciating. Her work aims to be sensitive and vulnerable, casting light on experiences of life often disregarded.
I loved talking to Alice. We d...
Duration: 01:08:45Rosanna Raymond - Activator, Fabricator
Jul 28, 2024Artist Rosanna Raymond aka Sistar S’pacific is in her words an "activator, fabricator" who has achieved international renown for her performances, installations, body adornment, and spoken word.
Rosanna is an innovator of the Pacific art scene and notable producer of and commentator on contemporary Moana culture in Aotearoa New Zealand, the U.K, Canada, Australia and the USA.She is a long-standing member of the art collective the Pacific Sisters and a founding member of the SaVĀge K’lub. Her body centred practice includes working within museums and higher education institutions as a researcher, curat...
Duration: 01:17:49Georgina Hoby Scutt - Contemporary Painter
Jul 21, 2024Georgina is a painter living in Nelson in Te Waipounamu, the South Island of NZ.
Informed by her print & pattern textile design background, Georgie develops distinctive, warm and earthy colour palettes and paints with broad expressive brushstrokes. Her work is primarily semi-abstracted landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
I loved meeting Georgie. We have a cool chat about how she came to be a full time painter 8 years ago, how being a self taught artist makes her feel and what she would like to learn more about and connect with to help further i...
Duration: 01:14:21Jamie Adamson - Sculptor
Jul 14, 2024Jamie Adamson is a sculptor based in East Auckland.
He works in a range of materials including rimu, pine, oak, pohutukawa, maple, walnut and steel. The timber pieces utilise steam bending techniques; while the steel works involve meticulous welding to create seamless forms.
With a background in boat building, design and business, Jamie now works full time on his sculptural art practice.
In this episode Jamie shares how and why he started making sculptures in 2013, the success of his first solo show at Railway Street Gallery + Studios, some ran...
Duration: 01:10:47Pam Wildbore - Contemporary artist
Jul 07, 2024Pam Wildbore is a contemporary artist from Hastings now living in Napier.
Pam is a resin and acrylic artist who began her art practice only 4 years ago. Since then she has had 7 solo shows, participated twice at the NZ Art Show with a sellout show of her work in 2023, and is currently preparing for at Art in the Park 2024.
We have such a great chat covering topics from the creativity of hairdressing and my softball fears in high school to how Pam first got her work out there and then found herself...
Duration: 01:12:13Natalie Holland - Textile artist
Jun 30, 2024Natalie Holland is a textile artist from Wellington. She produces bright and colourful punch needle pieces that feature motifs and patterns used in hiapo (Niuean tapa cloth), linking to her Niuean heritage.
Her works are made using 100% NZ wool and feature botanical and geometric elements in a wide range of often unexpected colour combinations. Natalie’s work enables her to reflect on the important women in her life and the impact the history of women’s making, sewing and crafting has had on her own creative development. The results are beautifully crafted and contemporary works that pay h...
Duration: 01:16:33Yvonne Abercrombie - Contemporary artist
Jun 23, 2024Yvonne Abercrombie is a contemporary artist living in Helensville just north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Applying the figure to an abstract landscape is where Yvonne’s practice is situated. Yvonne combines personal narratives and imagination with an exploration and development of the painting process.
It was so lovely for me to speak to someone I know quite well and a friend and discover so much about her work.In this episode Yvonne talks about her love of traditional hearty cooking and how that translates into her paintings and how she handles paint, and her...
Duration: 01:18:50Rachael Errington - Visual artist
Jun 20, 2024Rachael Errington is a visual artist living, working and exhibiting in both New Zealand and Australia. She has been showing her paintings professionally for over 20 years, and has had 40 major solo exhibitions to date.
Rachael grew up living in the middle of an English wood, where she and her brother spent most of their time making dens and treehouses. It is undoubtedly this experience that created her fascination with painting trees. Her work is inspired by colours in nature and the way light filters through flora, creating emotive connections for the viewer, encouraging them...
Duration: 01:07:59Tim Jones: Contemporary painter
Jun 16, 2024Tim Jones is a contemporary painter born in the UK and living in Matakana New Zealand. He creates bold abstract paintings through the use of strong gestural mark making.
Driven by inquiry, and with evocative reference to the natural environment, colour and painterly form are intertwined and steeped in rhythm and movement.
Tim talks about how he has always liked to draw and paint and also take photographs and how his background travelling extensively, diving and working on super yachts has ultimately informed his art practice. He shares his intuitive painting process...
Duration: 01:16:17Zoë Nash: Multi-disciplinary artist
Jun 09, 2024Zoë Nash is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her brightly coloured, abstract works explore a slow and mindful accumulation of repeated and highly detailed mark making.
Reflecting her love of nature, Zoë’s works increasingly draw on selected plant and flower motifs as inspiration. Frequently initiated by things seen, things spoken, or things remembered, narrative and nostalgia are also used to trigger personal connection with viewers.
After taking some art classes with Zoë at Browne School of Art, it was a real privilege to talk to her and get to k...
Duration: 01:40:21Belinda Griffiths - Conceptual figurative artist
Jun 02, 2024Belinda Griffiths is a conceptual figurative artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her work lies within the disciplines of painting and printmaking and explores the expressive power of the gestural mark.
When coupled with depictions of the human form, this tension between mark and form has the potential to dig deeper and communicate something of the human experience that becomes instinctive and visceral. Belinda's work is an ongoing exploration of that potential.
In this episode we talk about how she came to emigrate from South Africa to New Zealand at the ag...
Duration: 01:51:06Clinton Christian - Visual artist
May 26, 2024Clinton Christian (aka Clint© or CC'd) is an award winning contemporary New Zealand artist based in Hamilton New Zealand.
His graphic style, themes and mediums reflect his personality - fun, bright, shiny and often nostalgic with a love of all things 70s and 80s.
Clint initially gained a big following with his animal pop portrait series ‘Animal Instinct’ during 2020/21 and he has recently developed a new collection of work ‘Retrovision’ that dives into his youthful nostalgic memories of the 1970’s -80’s.
Clint loves making people smile and is s...
Duration: 01:35:12POPUP virtual platform - with Naomi Azoulay
May 21, 2024POPUP is a versatile platform for artists, organisations, and venues in Aotearoa to produce their own online experiences. Born out of years of online event production, POPUP allows users to effortlessly create and manage their online events.
The platform's immersive virtual spaces facilitate serendipitous encounters and meaningful interactions. From customisable environments to interactive features such as video chat and spatialised sound, POPUP empowers users to curate memorable experiences tailored to their unique visions. Additionally, the platform prioritises ease of use, ensuring everyone can participate fully in the digital realm.
Artist Naomi Azoulay, w...
Duration: 00:19:38Nic Dempster - Visual Artist
May 19, 2024Dunedin based artist Nic Dempster has been part of the city’s art scene for over twenty years. His bold colourful geometric style has developed out of contemporary landscape work and reflects his love for architecture and design.
His works play with ideas of urbanisation, our infatuation with property and the great kiwi quarter acre dream.
It was such a pleasure meeting Nic. We talk about how he went from studying history at Uni and gaining a masters degree to full time artist. He shares how he approaches the composition of his wor...
Duration: 01:21:04Brother Theo - with Charles Tongue
May 13, 2024In this episode I'm chatting to Charles Tongue, the founder and CEO of Brother Theo - a platform dedicated to career coaching and legacy planning, tailored specifically for artists.
Brother Theo provides a range of perspectives to help artists plan and grow their career as well as their legacy. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your career to the next level, Brother Theo helps you achieve your goals and reach your full potential as an artist.
Charles talks about the Studio of Contemporary Art Gallery which his...
Duration: 00:43:19Robyn Fleet - Emerging Artist
May 05, 2024Robyn Fleet is a painter from the Hawkes Bay. Her paintings capture the essence of human experiences and our deep connections to the environment.
Robyn is obsessed with the materiality of paint itself and all its possibilities.
A common thread in Robyn's work is 'the human condition' suggesting avenues of emotion and thought, the human experience through sensations of materiality and tactility.
We discuss the Ruahine Ranges landscape series which help to tell the story of an accident her father had in 1955 in the ranges which has had a...
Duration: 01:21:51Sally Bulling - Contemporary Artist
Apr 28, 2024Sally Bulling is a contemporary New Zealand painter living in Queenstown.
Invoking a sense of energy, Sally Bulling's abstract works are created with physical movements, sweeping marks, dripping flicks and elaborate pours. Her love of colour, light and reflection is captured in her beautiful paintings.
After a successful career in the fashion and fine art industry she returned to her love of painting in 2020 and now works full time on her art practice.
I loved hanging out with Sally i...
Duration: 01:28:12Tim Christie - Multi disciplinary digital artist
Apr 22, 2024Tim Christie is a designer and artist currently based in Wellington New Zealand.
His innovative, fashion-forward artistic style has been described as a modern synthesis of op art, pop art, street art and geometric expressionism.
Over the last two years he has extended his collection to include light boxes, large original acrylic paintings and illuminated weavings, enjoying playing with the space or ‘void’ between abstract and representational art.
Tim shares his inspirational story from graphic designer to successful artist and some of the storie...
Duration: 01:39:51Alison Gilmour - Contemporary Painter
Apr 15, 2024Alison Gilmour is a painter from Auckland, New Zealand. She grew up in Devonport, a coastal suburb in Auckland, which has instilled a deep love of the sea inspiring her to paint it in its many forms. She is also well known for her beautiful floral and still life paintings.
Alison captures the endless beauty of her environment with delicate brushwork – creating images which have a photo-realistic quality and hues which reflect the clarity, light and richness of the South Pacific.
In this episode Alison tells the...
Duration: 01:10:44Dominique Marriott - Contemporary Artist
Apr 07, 2024This episode is kindly supported by Turua Gallery
Dominique Marriott is a Waikato-based artist living near Raglan on the west coast. She specialises in life drawing and is well known for her minimalistic nude paintings created with sumi ink and calligraphy brushes.
Dominique works in a bold and uninhibited way to capture the essence of the human form. Her work reflects a deep appreciation for simplicity, energy, and the intrinsic beauty of the body. Guided by the principles of Zen, Dominique approaches her artistic practice as a...
Duration: 01:32:57Raymond Sagapolutele - Contemporary photographer
Mar 31, 2024Raymond Sagapolutele is an Aotearoa NZ-born Sāmoan artist and academic living in Manurewa in Auckland. His photographic practice focuses on his lived experiences, his heritage and his cultural ties to the history of and the lands within the Pacific.
In his hands, the camera gains a voice and connects to the cherished Samoan tradition of storytelling. As Raymond says, his camera has been there when he has laughed with friends, it's been there when he has cried with family and it's been there when he has sought inspiration, clarification and resolution.
... Duration: 01:55:02James Emery - Emerging Artist
Mar 21, 2024Auckland based artist James Emery has always had a keen interest in art and art history, particularly NZ art from the 1950s and 60s and the American abstract expressionists.
Majoring in art history at Auckland Uni James worked within the art industry for many years before developing his own practice only 2 years ago. This month he celebrates his first solo show at The Grey Place in Grey Lynn, Auckland, which opens March 26th 2024.
This chat was highly motivating and interesting for me and honestly made me...
Duration: 01:25:52Jae Frew - Contemporary portrait photographer
Mar 17, 2024Jae Frew is a contemporary portrait photographer previously based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and now living in Mahurangi.
Jae's commercial career spans over 30 years and the highly respected and sought-after photographer lists prime ministers, heads of state, TV personalities, corporate CEO’s, film and television actors, and prominent sports people among his subjects.
With time and space to pursue his own photographic projects during the 2020 / 2021 COVID lockdowns, Jae began exploring a more personal side to his practice and Manu Kōingo – Birds of Yearning was formed...
Duration: 01:06:46Michael McHugh - Visual Artist
Mar 10, 2024Artist Michael McHugh is New Zealand born and resides in Sydney Australia. For more than three decades, he has been exploring the vast potential of colour, composition and abstract form with an inquisitive emphasis on the natural world.
McHugh believes constant drawing and collaging to be fundamental to his painting process. This foundation enables him to fully explore composition and vigorously push boundaries with colour, pattern and technique.
I had a lovely chat with Michael. We talk about his career in advertising and media and how h...
Duration: 01:03:33Faleata Ualesi - Emerging Contemporary Samoan Artist
Mar 03, 2024Faleata Ualesi is an emerging contemporary Samoan Artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. His current work is built around motifs shown through grids and pacific patterns.
I loved meeting Faleata and welcoming him to my studio (and black taro patch) at Muriwai Beach. In this episode we talk about Faleata's teaching career, how he manages his art practice around his job, and how he feels having a full time job in a way takes away the pressure to sell his artwork, allowing him to focus on experimenting and exploring and t...
Duration: 01:04:41Tony Ogle - Screen Printer, Painter
Feb 25, 2024Tony Ogle is known as one of New Zealand’s leading screen printers. He currently lives in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne.
Next month in March Tony celebrates a prolific art career of more than 30 years with a retrospective solo exhibition at Parnell Gallery in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, showing more than 60 of his original paintings that have rarely been seen in their original state.
Tony digs deep into his fascinating life story and art practice. He talks about how his grandmother inspired him as a youngster and the long...
Duration: 01:24:32Tawhai Rickard - Contemporary Maori Artist
Feb 18, 2024Tawhai Rickard is a contemporary New Zealand Maori artist born in Gisborne, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, of Ngati Porou decent.
He is influenced by the epic history of his country Aotearoa, New Zealand and its historical interrelationship between Māori and Pakeha to the present day. His work reflects the social, historical and cultural landscapes of Aotearoa - Korerō, commentary, history and stories about our journey as New Zealand.
In this episode Tawhai talks about his journey from growing up in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne, rarely seeing artwork representing his Ma...
Duration: 00:58:22Esther Bunning - Contemporary Photographic Artist
Feb 11, 2024Esther is a photographic artist living in Greytown in the Wairarapa. She has had a long successful photographic career firstly in wedding photography then in project and portrait photography. Her personal fine art photographic practice has become her main focus since 2020.
At her core Esther loves to illuminate others and give them their opportunity to shine.
She is passionate about giving people a voice and is interested in the emotion and story behind a work. It's important to her to balance this with her desire to create...
Duration: 01:07:37Naomi Azoulay - Contemporary Collage Artist
Feb 04, 2024Naomi Azoulay is a middle-eastern-born, Auckland-based award-winning portrait and mixed media collage artist.
Naomi creates captivating, bold, intimate and vibrant mixed media collages and oil paintings. She aims to tackle social justice issues, decolonise the art space and expand the definition of beauty. She is passionate about exploring the female gaze and probing traditional gender roles. With over three decades of experience in education, Naomi has also earned a reputation as an innovative and dynamic art educator.
Naomi talks about her childhood in Israel, why she c...
Duration: 01:12:17Oliver Cain - Multidisciplinary Visual Artist
Jan 28, 2024Oliver Cain is an English born artist who emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2013. His work covers a wide range of topics and materials and takes many forms from ceramics to sculpture to installation and painting. His artworks push the boundaries between conceptualism and post-pop art.
As a proud member of the queer community, Oliver uses his work to examine, question and criticise the relationships between gender, (homo) sexuality, and society's misconceptions about these themes. His work initiates a conversation between avant-garde artistic production and human perceptions about queer sexuality.
... Duration: 01:34:11Joshua Davison - Contemporary Artist
Jan 21, 2024Joshua Davison is a contemporary artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with a diverse body of work in both realism portraiture and sculptural painting.
Josh is a self taught artist who has developed personal techniques which he uses throughout his impasto and sculptural paintings such as a methodical palette knife technique, layering MDF like a topographical map, making moulds and piping modelling paste.
Joshua talks about how he strives for originality and how experimenting with different media and techniques, stretching his own canvases, making his own f...
Duration: 01:33:43Misery - Painter, Sculptor, Mural Artist
Jan 14, 2024Tanja McMillan, a.k.a Misery, is an Australian born painter, sculptor, photographer and mural artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her creative reach is extensive, ranging from highly crafted fine art paintings and wall art to animation and fashion.
Tanja’s work, under the name Misery, graces streets and galleries in Aotearoa NZ and around the world. She has exhibited in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Melbourne, Taiwan, Berlin, Los Angeles, California, New York, Hawai'i and Paris and has collaborated with New Zealand and international designers and brands such as Blunt, Casio Baby-G, Tel...
Duration: 01:31:12Sierra Roberts - Artist
Dec 21, 2023Sierra Roberts is an artist from Wānaka, in the South Island of New Zealand. She creates bold, statement portraits exploring perceptions of beauty and the female experience.
Her travels through Australia, Asia, South, Central and Northern America have strongly influenced her art, inspiring her to share and celebrate the beauty she has experienced, challenging her work beyond traditional portraiture.
We talk about Sierra's experience studying fine arts in Utah and at Whitecliffe in Auckland, how she eventually decided to leave before completing her full degree an...
Duration: 01:31:35Angela Rowe - Artist, Writer, Curator, Mentor
Dec 14, 2023Angela Rowe is an artist, writer, curator and mentor based in Whangārei. Her creative practice includes storytelling across performance, installation, photography, drawing, and textile works.
Angela is interested in the future of arts in Aotearoa and how to create a more sustainable arts industry. She founded Creative Practice, a collaborative mentoring program designed to empower artists and creatives with a focus on resilience and community support.
I loved hearing stories about Angela's grandparents and how they have influenced her and her pr...
Duration: 01:23:46Jamie Chapman - Painter
Dec 07, 2023Jamie Chapman is a painter based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. He was born in the United Kingdom and immigrated with his family to New Zealand when he was 2 years old, settling and growing up in Whangarei.
Jamie talks about his figurative oil paintings and how they have evolved over the years into different 'series' of portrait works. He shares how he likes to "shift it up" and challenge himself to loosen up in his painting process, partly because he doesn't like to get bored and partly because he enjoys exploring new i...
Duration: 01:05:38Sofia Athineou - Glass Artist
Nov 30, 2023Sofia Athineou is a full-time artist of Greek heritage, based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her practice is mainly in glass, a medium she sees as having many sensual and optical qualities.
Surrounded by the dramatic bush of Auckland’s west coast Waitakere Ranges, it’s easy to see the inspiration behind Sofia Athineou’s incredible glass sculptures. These pieces represent vitality through light, texture and colour and appear to blend into the ever-changing landscape. Elemental forces such as wind, fire and water and the constant movement and natural patterns of these elements...
Duration: 01:24:02Andrew J. Steel - Contemporary Artist
Nov 23, 2023Andrew J. Steel is a New Zealand contemporary artist with a passion for story telling. Over his career he has worked across the mediums of public art, private interiors, fine artwork, letterpress, land, body, photography and digital works.
"An artists role is to live a remarkable life and report back on it in their work." says Andrew. Andrew makes art to learn more about people & the world, then he retells these stories in his work to offer perspective and peace - both for himself and for others seeking comfort through the arts. Duration: 01:05:39
Tanya Blong - Contemporary Artist
Oct 12, 2023Tanya Blong was our very first guest on the Creative Matters podcast and lucky for us she is back 96 episodes later to talk about her artistic journey since March 2021 and how her practice has developed and evolved.
In this episode we start by talking about the Creative Matters podcast, how it has evolved over the last 2 and a half years since I first interviewed Tanya in episode 1 and my goals for the podcast going forward.
Tanya talks about her upcoming solo show S...
Duration: 00:58:16Julie and Michael Freeman - Hyperrealist Pastel Artists
Oct 05, 2023Julie and Michael Freeman are award winning hyperrealistic pastel artists living in Auckland NZ.
Julie is currently creating work with the intent of realism beyond the photograph. Her subject matter is varied, from coastal and nautical to the natural fauna and flora of NZ, but if asked she would say she has an affinity with painting animals.
Michael’s subjects range from his current series of still life paintings featuring iconic New Zealand toys and objects, through to landscapes featuring old weathered sheds, barns, rail...
Duration: 01:26:44Toby Raine - Contemporary Artist
Sep 27, 2023Toby Raine is a contemporary artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. He has a distinctive approach to his work, moving large quantities of oil paint across the surface of a canvas with confident strokes, creating expressive, emotive, gestural paintings.
Toby spent eleven years studying at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland, beginning in 2006 when he was 23-years-old. Over the next decade he would go on to complete a degree, then a masters, then a doctorate in Fine Arts.
In this episode Toby ta...
Duration: 01:16:32Matthew Browne - Abstract Artist and Founder/Director of Browne School of Art
Sep 16, 2023Matthew Browne is an abstract painter living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Born in London UK, he relocated to New Zealand in 1991.
Matthew's striking geometric paintings feature sharp lines with bold, experimental colour palettes. His process starts in exploring formal relationships in colour and form and develops greater complexity as the work progresses. He has been making and showing paintings and sculptures for more than 40 years.
After many years of teaching visual arts in both the community and tertiary sectors, Matthew founded his ow...
Fleur Woods - Contemporary Fibre Artist
Sep 01, 2023Fleur Woods is a contemporary fibre artist based in the beautiful rural village of Upper Moutere (near Nelson, New Zealand) She is surrounded by vineyards, hop farms, orchards and country gardens - it makes sense that her work is largely inspired by nature.
Fleur describes her style of her work as contemporary stitched paintings. Coming to stitch as a mixed media artist she has taught herself a variety of embroidery techniques which generally don't follow traditional embroidery but beautifully serve the kind of ma...
Duration: 01:37:53Evan Woodruffe - Abstract Artist
Aug 25, 2023Abstract artist Evan Woodruffe lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is a well known, much loved figure in the NZ art world.
Evan is an artist with many threads to his practice. Most of his time is spent making work for exhibitions, projects, and commissions. He's also the “product specialist” for Gordon Harris, running workshops and writing editorial for their art stores. He is one of six Global Brand Ambassadors for both Schmincke Artist Colours and da Vinci Artist Brushes in Germany. He teaches at Browne School of Art in Auckland and h...
Duration: 01:32:43Sean Beldon - Visual Artist
Aug 10, 2023Sean Beldon is a South African born, Auckland-based artist best known for his large New Zealand landscape paintings. His style is mostly painterly with a modernist feel.
For more than a decade, Sean has been photographing and painting landscapes from the far north to the deep south of Aotearoa. He finds his inspiration on road trips throughout the country and only paints places he has been. Even though his compositions will be quite abstract at times, the scene always originate with what he sees through the camera’s viewfinder – his primary canvas - an...
Duration: 02:05:20